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Everything Old Is New Again

I was filling in for Tom Taylor on the night shift at KEYJ on a lonely, chilly Sunday night when the AP said that Iranian “students” had sacked the US embassy. Jimmy Carter was president – and, I figured, he would be for four more years “I mean”, thought the young Democrat-leaning Mitch mind, “who do the GOP have? Baker? Reagan? Huh?”

President Obama’s slow ride down Gallup’s daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history.

As the story notes, Carter was well below Obama’s current numbers; Americans actually rallied around the president after the crisis erupted; Carter worked long and hard to squander that national mandate.

How does this compare with other presidents’ first terms?

According to Gallup, here are the job approval numbers for other presidents at this stage of their terms, a year before the re-election campaign:

— Harry S. Truman: 54 percent.

— Dwight Eisenhower: 78 percent.

— Lyndon B. Johnson: 44 percent.

— Richard M. Nixon: 50 percent.

— Ronald Reagan: 54 percent.

— George H.W. Bush: 52 percent.

— Bill Clinton: 51 percent.

— George W. Bush: 55 percent.

What’s more, Gallup finds that Obama’s overall job approval rating so far has averaged 49 percent. Only three former presidents have had a worse average rating at this stage: Carter, Ford, and Harry S. Truman. Only Truman won re-election in an anti-Congress campaign that Obama’s team is using as a model.

JOHn Hood at NRO’s Corner thinks we are at the beginning of a hot war with Iran:

I guess U.S. and Western politicians has been treading carefully around the reality of the situation, perhaps for good reason, but does the political class really think the rest of us don’t know what’s happening in Iran right now? The Israelis or agents acting in their behalf or interests are subjecting the Iranian nuclear program to attack. First they hit a base outside of Tehran two weeks ago, taking out the head of Iran’s missile defense force along with a couple dozen other military personnel and some key real estate. Then on Monday they hit a facility near Isfahan that houses one of the country’s uranium-enrichment sites.

Presumably, American leaders and other Western officials know what is going on, even if they haven’t been actively supporting the strikes on Iran. In response, the Iranian government orchestrated an assault on the British embassy — there being no comparable Israeli or American target handy — and will attempt terrorist or military reprisals as soon as they can.

In other words, the question of whether the military option should be used against Iran’s nuclear program is now moot. It is being used. Now what?

Add another item into the fray and it becomes obvious that we are at a real political cusp in our country: The Congressional approval rating is even lower! A comment on the Winona Daily News website included this:

Their [Congress’] approval ratings are 1/2 BPs during the oil spill. Hence, this joke:
A driver was stuck in a traffic jam on the beltway around Washington,DC Nothing was moving. Suddenly, a man knocks on the window. The driver rolls down the window and asks”What’s going on?””Terrorist s have kidnapped Congress, the man replied, and they are asking for a $100 million dollar ransom Otherwise, they are going to douse them all in gasoline and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, collecting donations.””How much is everyone giving, on average?” the driver asks The man replies, “Roughly a gallon.”

In all seriousness – where do we go from here? Swiftee and Terry both make valid points…and they are scary.

Somebody call the paramedics! Leslie agreed with swiftee! There may be hope after all. I thought all was lost and libs are genetically indisposed to critical thinking. And yet, here is Leslie. I hope he is not the exception that proves the rule.

Mitch, your premise rests on the HUGE assumption that those angry voters who voted for Obama 3 years ago now see a better choice on the other side. Remember the old saw …”Often the correct answer is the simplest one?”…maybe the drop in approval ratings is just further proof this idea of the widespeard Lamestream Media is, and always has been, nothing more than a wingnut conspiracy.

Congressional approval ratings are without meaning. Nearly everyone polled dislikes something Congress has done, or hasn’t gotten done. But when it comes to their own representative, most will vote to re-elect the representative of their district.

Mitch, your premise rests on the HUGE assumption that those angry voters who voted for Obama 3 years ago now see a better choice on the other side.

No, it doesn’t. My premise is that Obama is a crap president, and most of the nation knows it.

Remember the old saw …”Often the correct answer is the simplest one?”…maybe the drop in approval ratings is just further proof this idea of the widespeard Lamestream Media is, and always has been, nothing more than a wingnut conspiracy

For starters, I didn’t make an argument. I compared poll numbers, and cautioned Republicans against irrational exuberance. The only “argument” was your insertion of some “lamestream media” meme – which may well be arguable, but had nothing to do with anything I wrote.

I now understand where the name of this blog comes from…

…in, apparently, the same sense that you “understood” what I was writing in the first place.

I’m pulling for None of the Above. If we shut down Congress and the Executive for four years and let everything coast on autopilot, the economy might just recover, and then we could go back to arguing whether Democrats suck more than Republicans. And we might have a few bucks in our pocket.

Mitch, ya went from Poll Numbers to the Unemployed hate Obama to Obama’s a Crap President. I know it’s all hard to follow, but those are Arguments, pal.
Really Troy? Let me help you out. ….”Wit: the keen perception and cleverly apt expression of those connections between ideas that awaken amusement and pleasure.” Read it enough and you may be able to actually develop some.

justplainangry, I don’t consider myself a liberal, so don’t treat me like the canary in the mine. I like to sit in the median and listen to the far left and the far right make a lot of noise on the lane violation rumble strips. And lately, I have had to wear earplugs…in both ears!

Thank you for your recommended method of “reading a short definition of the word ‘wit’ repeatedly” to develop wit, Earsall Mackbee. The insight this provides into the origins of your own “wit” is priceless.